The Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA), today announced the national winner of the 2014 FPA CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP®) of the Year Award: Randall Stout, from HPH Solutions.

Mr Stout was also named the 2014 FPA CFP® Western Australia State Winner.

The CFP® of the Year is awarded to the financial planner who best embodies the highest professional standards, as embraced by the FPA.

“We look for a planner who demonstrates true professional leadership and excellence, someone who routinely goes above and beyond best practice to achieve the best outcomes for clients,” he explained.

Mr Rantall went on to say that the awards are particularly important this year given recent debate around professional standards and the quality of financial advice.

“There has been a lot of attention given to rogue planners – as it should be. But equally, the reality is that those individuals are well and truly outweighed by the number of professional, skilled and committed planners working hard to improve financial outcomes for everyday Australians.

“That’s why I am so pleased to be able to reward someone like Randall, who has made such an outstanding contribution to our profession.

The theme of our Professional Congress this year is “Inspiring Greatness”, and I hope that Randall’s achievements will go some way towards inspiring greatness in others,” he said.

One of the judges of the award, Lisa Weissel, CFP® and Senior Financial Adviser at Evergreen Wealth Professionals, said that that the high calibre of entrants made the awards decision a difficult one.

“We were looking for true excellence in financial planning. For us, that translates as the ability to provide clear, easily-understood advice which clients can follow to reach their financial goals. It sounds simple, but requires the combined ability to genuinely engage and communicate with clients, along with the technical skills required to provide the most appropriate advice,” Ms. Weissel said.

Mr Stout CFP® is a certified practicing accountant (CPA) who has been a financial planner since 2000. He has been a business owner of a number of successful Perth-based financial planning practices and is currently a Director of HPH Financial Planning. He is the Chair of the WA Chapter of the FPA, makes regular contributions to the Money section of the West Australian, and appears regularly on Perth radio 6PR as a money and personal finance expert.

Mr Stout said that he felt extremely privileged to have taken out the national CFP award.

“I look at the people who have won this award before me and they are the financial planners I look up to. They are people who consistently give great advice and I am privileged to be placed on the same level as them. We all care about people, we’ve all got empathy. And we are all driven to give the best advice that we can to really help people improve their financial situation.

“I am very proud to be recognised for what I do by the FPA. I see the tireless effort they put in on behalf of their members and I am grateful for that. My clients trust me and know that I care and this award will certainly help because its shows my clients that I am recognised for what I do among my peers.”

In conclusion, Mr Rantall highlighted the FPA’s longstanding commitment to raising standards in the financial planning industry, and the integral part that the awards play in that process.

“By recognising and rewarding planners who live the FPA values and standards and in so doing consistently deliver great outcomes for clients, we’re providing the role models and benchmarks that will inspire and raise standards across the whole profession. This is the best way to show Australians that our profession is both worthy of their trust and offers them the best and most reliable path to financial wellbeing,” Mr Rantall said.

The state winners for the FPA CFP® of the year award were also presented today.

CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and are certification marks owned outside the US by the Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd (FPSB). Financial Planning Association of Australia Limited is the marks licensing authority for the CFP marks in Australia, through agreement with the FPSB.